Browsing by Subject "interorganizational imitation"

Now showing 1 - 3 of 3

Decoupling Policy From Practice: The Case Of Stock Repurchase Programs
(2001-06) Westphal, J. D.; Zajac, E. J.; Westphal, James D.
This study examines firms' decoupling of informal practices from formally adopted policies through analysis of the implementation of stock repurchase programs by large U.S. corporations in the late 1980s and early 1990s, when firms were experiencing external pressures to adopt policies that demonstrate corporate control over managerial behavior. We develop theory to explain variation in the responses of firms to such pressures, i.e., why some firms acquiesce by actually implementing stock repurchase programs, while others decouple formally adopted repurchase programs from actual corporate investments, so that the plans remain more symbolic than substantive. Results of a longitudinal study of stock repurchase programs over a six-year time period show that decoupling is more likely to occur when top executives have power over boards to avoid institutional pressures for change and when social structural or experiential factors enhance awareness among powerful actors of the potential for organizational decoupling. The study has implications for future research on decoupling, organizational learning, and corporate governance.
Global Competition, Institutions, And The Diffusion Of Organizational Practices: The International Spread Of Iso 9000 Quality Certificates
(2002-06) Guler, I.; Guillen, M. F.; MacPherson, J. M.; Macpherson, John Muir
We use panel data on ISO 9000 quality certification in 85 countries between 1993 and 1998 to better understand, the cross-national diffusion of an organizational practice. Following neoinstitutional theory, we focus on the coercive, normative, and mimetic effects that result from the exposure of firms in a given country to a powerful source of critical resources, a common pool of relevant technical knowledge, and the experiences of firms located in other countries. We use social network theory to develop a systematic conceptual understanding of how firms located in different countries influence each other's rates of adoption as a result of cohesive and equivalent network relationships. Regression results provide support for our predictions that states and foreign multinationals are the key actors responsible for coercive isomorphism, cohesive trade relationships between countries generate coercive and normative effects, and role-equivalent trade relationships result in learning-based and competitive imitation.
Second-Order Imitation: Uncovering Latent Effects Of Board Network Ties
(2001-12) Westphal, J. D.; Seidel, M. D. L.; Stewart, K. J.; Westphal, James D.; Seidel, Marc-David L.
This study examines whether board interlock ties facilitate second-order imitation, in which firms imitate an underlying decision process that can be adapted to multiple policy domains, rather than imitating specific policies of tied-to firms (first-order imitation). Longitudinal analyses of archival data for a large sample of Forbes/Fortune 500 companies, as well as analyses of survey data on mimetic processes among these firms, show that network ties to firms that use imitation to determine a particular policy can prompt use of imitation by the focal firm in. determining both that policy and a different policy. Firms that have board network ties to firms in other industries that imitate their competitors' business strategy are likely to imitate their own competitors' business strategy, as well as their competitors' acquisition activity and compensation policy. Thus, the findings reveal network effects that are not visible with extant perspectives on interorganizational imitation. We discuss implications for institutional theory and research on interorganizational networks.